A Martin Luther documentary containing dramatization was released in 2017. It was the year of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of the “Ninety-five Theses” on October 31, 1517, which sparked the Reformation. A Return to Grace: Luther’s Life and Legacy is an hour and 45 minutes long. I feel it is time well spent, especially in the time of the year when we should remember to be thankful for the revival of the truth of God’s Word brought about by the Reformation. The disk containing this documentary can be set to play with Spanish audio, if desired. I discovered that the entire English version was posted to YouTube in November of 2020. Below is a taste of it (in English).

A good portion of the presentation is interspersed with commentary by experts. In my opinion , most of the men and women who comment are fairly expressive and engaging, rather than monotonous. Part of the presentation is comprised of visual content backed by narration. In the dramatized portion, I found Padraic Delaney to be convincing in his role as Martin Luther. His physical appearance was much closer to the pictures we see of Martin Luther than the star of the 2003 movie called Luther, and he portrayed Luther as a more passionate man. This presentation provides an overview of the political structure of Luther’s day. Although the other documentary I had watched entitled Luther: His Life, His Path, His Legacy was well done and covered some aspects in more depth, I found this documentary a little more powerful emotionally. The film gives some interesting insights into Luther:

(1) We see Luther transformed by an understanding of God’s grace from an insecure man fearful of an angry God to a man bold enough to risk his life for truth.

(2) We see Luther as a humble man who believed the man in a lowly job was every bit as valuable as the Pope, if doing his job to serve God and others as best he can.

(3) We see Luther as a gifted man who could engage people of any age, either with the spoken or written word. He had a “charming earthiness” that utilized both strong words and humor. He was a prolific writer.
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(4) We see Luther as an innovative man who used the power of the printing press, believed marriage and family life was a better tutor than monastic life, and saw the value of educating women in a time when it wasn’t popular. I have a feeling that if Luther were alive today, he might use “Twitter” to communicate with the people.

I believe most adults would find this presentation very consuming. Some teens may find it a bit tedious, depending on their personalities.